and many more benefits!

Find us on Facebook

GMAT Club Timer Informer

Hi GMATClubber!

Thank you for using the timer!
We noticed you are actually not timing your practice. Click the START button first next time you use the timer.
There are many benefits to timing your practice, including:

Trans world Entertainment Corporation, which owns the record Town and Saturday Matinee retail chains,announced that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed.

B. It is closing up to one-forth of its stores, which accounted for its poor sales.

If you trace the verb tense of the highlighted words/phrase, it is past -> present continuous -> past - which is not good for GMAT. Also the B option doesn't show the casual relationship clearly as is shown in C

This question scares me since I thought A is right since they will match to it's closest precedent stores.. Also in OG questions pronoun ambiguity is the last and sometimes OK.

On the topic of whether a sentence has a clause or has right connectors. Doesn't the OA (C) result in a run-on sentence?

Here is the sentence with OA included -

Trans world Entertainment Corporation, which owns the record Town and Saturday Matinee retail chains,announceditwas closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor sales.

I've marked subject as highlight and underline and verb as highlight.

Any comments are much appreciated.

ThanksNT2010

Hi nt,

that is not a run-on sentence. A run on is defined as follow:is a sentence made of 2 IC connected by a comma only.

Marc goes to Paris, Paul goes to Milan <== run onMarc goes to Paris, AND Paul goes to Milan <== fineIf you connect the ICs with a FANBOYS the sentence becomes correct, or either you can place a ";" between those two.

This example does not present such construct: The company announced that it will do something <== correct, even if the subject is repeated ( the company and it).

Hope is clear _________________

It is beyond a doubt that all our knowledge that begins with experience.

Trans world Entertainment Corporation, which owns the record Town and Saturday Matinee retail chains announced that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed.

A. that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closedB. it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor salesC. it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor salesD. to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its storesE. having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closed

kassim wrote:

Dear Mr. Mike, Can you please help me understand the below question. Thanks in Advance. Kassim

Dear Kassim,I'm happy to respond. Like many official questions, this is a very good question, very well-written.

Let's look at the answers one at a time.

A.that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closedThe only answer beginning with "that." Normally, in the formalism of the GMAT, "that" is always used after cognitive verbs, but this is not a strict rule. The structure "since sales ... are poor" sounds awkward. The "they" is an ambiguous pronoun --- what is being closed? All the stores? Only a 1/4 of them? The pronoun is unclear. This answer cannot be correct.

B.it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor salesThe "is" violates sequence of tenses. See here:http://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/sequence-o ... orrection/Also, the antecedent of "which" is unclear --- again, all the stores? only 1/4 of the stores? This one cannot be correct.

C.it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor salesClear, and no obvious errors. A promising candidate.

D.to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its storesThe opening infinitive is unidiomatic: we announce that P is Q; we don't announce P to be Q. The phrase "on account of poor sales" is needlessly wordy. This cannot be correct.

E.having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closedThe gerund at the beginning is a complete disaster. The "will be" also violates the sequence of tenses rule. This one cannot be correct.

Trans world Entertainment Corporation, which owns the record Town and Saturday Matinee retail chains announced that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed.

A. that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closedB. it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor salesC. it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor salesD. to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its storesE. having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closed

kassim wrote:

Dear Mr. Mike, Can you please help me understand the below question. Thanks in Advance. Kassim

Dear Kassim,I'm happy to respond. Like many official questions, this is a very good question, very well-written.

Let's look at the answers one at a time.

A.that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closedThe only answer beginning with "that." Normally, in the formalism of the GMAT, "that" is always used after cognitive verbs, but this is not a strict rule. The structure "since sales ... are poor" sounds awkward. The "they" is an ambiguous pronoun --- what is being closed? All the stores? Only a 1/4 of them? The pronoun is unclear. This answer cannot be correct.

B.it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor salesThe "is" violates sequence of tenses. See here:http://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/sequence-o ... orrection/Also, the antecedent of "which" is unclear --- again, all the stores? only 1/4 of the stores? This one cannot be correct.

C.it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor salesClear, and no obvious errors. A promising candidate.

D.to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its storesThe opening infinitive is unidiomatic: we announce that P is Q; we don't announce P to be Q. The phrase "on account of poor sales" is needlessly wordy. This cannot be correct.

E.having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closedThe gerund at the beginning is a complete disaster. The "will be" also violates the sequence of tenses rule. This one cannot be correct.

The only possible answer is (C).

Dear Mr. Mike,

I was confused with Answer (B); It is clear now, According to sequence of tenses rules we can easily element answer choices A, B and E .

Trans world Entertainment Corporation, which owns the record Town and Saturday Matinee retail chains announced that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed.

A. that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed meaning changed, it is to close down the shops as a result of poor salesB. it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor sales'which' modifies shop, resulting in change in meaningC. it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor salesD. to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its stores 'that' should be followed by a clause, but there is no ssubject and verb in the phrase following 'that'; 'to be closing' is not a verbE. having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closed awkward

Edit: corrected spelling & punctuation

A. that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed meaning changed, it is to close down the shops as a result of poor salesB. it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor sales'which' modifies shop, resulting in change in meaningC. it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor salesD. to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its stores 'that' should be followed by a clause, but there is no ssubject and verb in the phrase following 'that'; 'to be closing' is not a verbE. having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closed awkward

Trans world Entertainment Corporation, which owns the record Town and Saturday Matinee retail chains announced that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closed.

A. that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closedB. it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor salesC. it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor salesD. to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its storesE. having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closed

kassim wrote:

Dear Mr. Mike, Can you please help me understand the below question. Thanks in Advance. Kassim

Dear Kassim,I'm happy to respond. Like many official questions, this is a very good question, very well-written.

Let's look at the answers one at a time.

A.that since sales of up to one-fourth of its stores are poor, they will be closedThe only answer beginning with "that." Normally, in the formalism of the GMAT, "that" is always used after cognitive verbs, but this is not a strict rule. The structure "since sales ... are poor" sounds awkward. The "they" is an ambiguous pronoun --- what is being closed? All the stores? Only a 1/4 of them? The pronoun is unclear. This answer cannot be correct.

B.it is closing up to one-fourth of its stores, which accounted for its poor salesThe "is" violates sequence of tenses. See here:http://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/sequence-o ... orrection/Also, the antecedent of "which" is unclear --- again, all the stores? only 1/4 of the stores? This one cannot be correct.

C.it was closing up to one fourth of its stores because of poor salesClear, and no obvious errors. A promising candidate.

D.to be closing, on account of poor sales, up to one-fourth of its storesThe opening infinitive is unidiomatic: we announce that P is Q; we don't announce P to be Q. The phrase "on account of poor sales" is needlessly wordy. This cannot be correct.

E.having poor sales, such that up to one-fourth of its stores will be closedThe gerund at the beginning is a complete disaster. The "will be" also violates the sequence of tenses rule. This one cannot be correct.

The only possible answer is (C).

Hi Mike,

Thank you for the wonderful explanation as always.However i want to ask whether C distorts a meaning of the initial sentence even though subtly.

The initial sentence suggests that since sales of up to 1/4th of the stores are poor , those stores will be shut down.This is what i thought when i was initially going through the answer choices.

Option C suggests that up to 1/4th of the stores are being closed because of poor sales but it is general about which stores are these.

Can you please suggest me if where i was incorrect in my analysis of the choices.Looking forward to your reponce.

First of all, akhil911, it's important not to be literalist, almost fundamentalist, about meaning. Choice (A) says they will close the stores with poor sales. Choice (C) says, they will close some stores, because of poor sales --- well, obviously, which stores are they going to close? The ones with the poor sales! If some aspect of the sentence goes from an explicit statement to an undeniable inference that is not stated, that constitutes absolutely no change in meaning. The skill of recognizing a perfectly valid inference is most pertinent on GMAT CR & RC, but this is an instance in which the skill is also very important in GMAT SC. See: http://magoosh.com/gmat/2013/gmat-criti ... inference/http://magoosh.com/gmat/2012/inference- ... rehension/